Intel Reportedly Interested In Acquiring RISC-V Firm SiFive

[evasb]

I have mixed feelings.

If this mean that Intel will push RISC-V chips to compete with ARM in smartphones and other applications. Great! If this mean that Intel will relegate RISC-V to IoT devices. Not great.

[andre30correia]

CISC? or RISC? intel new cpu are both

[juarezr]

If Intel will buy SiFive, this is going to bring industry attention and will be perceived as an endorsment in RISC-V, no matter if it succeeds or fails.

Either if SiFive fails inside Intel or is dismantled, it would only screw up the investors' money because other companies will fill the gap left by SiFive.

Probably the current and future SiFive market alone doesn't fit the Intel business scale requirements. Probably there is some opportunity that Intel is looking for with SiFive assets.

Maybe, Intel trying to enter in the smartphone cpu market again.. Who knows?

[PublicNuisance]

This will be terrible for those that value privacy/security. The whole reason I want to go RISC-V is to get away from crap like the Intel ME. Right now SiFive is the only company making RISC-V boards that are a desktop standard (like the Unmatched being Mini ITX).

[juarezr]

Oh look, something for Intel to buy and screw up.
I wonder if all the engineers at SiFive will bail as soon as it goes through.

If Intel will buy SiFive, this is going to bring industry attention and will be perceived as an endorsment in RISC-V, no matter if it succeeds or fails.

Either if SiFive fails inside Intel or is dismantled, it would only screw up the investors' money because other companies will fill the gap left by SiFive.

Probably the current and future SiFive market alone doesn't fit the Intel business scale requirements. Probably there is some opportunity that Intel is looking for with SiFive assets.

[danmcgrew]

From The Register, today:

"...There is a concern Intel is interested in SiFive not because it wants to pivot away from x86, or offer an alternative architecture on an equal footing as x86, but because it wants to be an inconvenience for Nvidia..."

Mind you, not for any high-minded purpose such as creating a better computing solution for the engineering world (Intel long ago abandoned any pretense of being concerned with elegant engineering solutions), but simply to "...be an inconvenience for Nvidia...".
As The Register charitably put it, tongue-in-cheek: Altera is getting lonely, and needs some company.

[ssokolow]

If this goes through, prepare for excellent Linux support but a million different SKUs for market segmentation purposes.

[M46m4]

Considering the chinese are the ones mostly pushing rv toward mobile / laptop adoption, I don't think this is much of a threat to the riscv ecosystem. This might not be the best deal to SiFive however, it has the potential to grow a lot currently and even in the future I believe it would be better for them to maintain their independence

[lyamc]

Since x86 is RISC at heart

That's a funny way of saying "x86 is CISC, not RISC"

[NateHubbard]

Oh look, something for Intel to buy and screw up.
I wonder if all the engineers at SiFive will bail as soon as it goes through.